Long Pasta Support Stick Handling for Homogeneous Drying
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing long pasta production plants face limitations in increasing production capacity while maintaining quality, as long pasta strands tend to stick together, break, and drying is incomplete, leading to compromised shape and quality.
Innovation Solution
A long pasta production plant with extended support sticks and synchronized chain handling systems, including thrust and traction kinematics, to manage longer pasta strands efficiently and homogeneously.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If long pasta is deposited on conveyor belts or frames, then the pasta can be transported through drying ovens, but the strands stick together resulting in incomplete drying and compromised shape quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces support sticks as an intermediary element between the pasta strands and the conveyor system. These sticks keep pasta strands separated during transport and drying, preventing direct contact between strands while allowing efficient conveyor-based transport. The sticks act as a mediating structure that solves the contradiction between maintaining pasta separation for quality and using conveyor belts for productivity.
2Manufacturing precision
If special support sticks with 2550 mm length are used to spread pasta, then pasta strands remain separated and quality is maintained, but production capacity is limited to maximum six sticks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a single-plane arrangement of support sticks to a three-dimensional stacked configuration. By stacking multiple sets of support sticks vertically, the system maintains the strand-separation benefits of individual sticks while multiplying production capacity through vertical dimensionality. This allows many more pasta strands to be processed simultaneously without compromising separation quality.
3Productivity
If the plant speed is increased to boost production, then output increases, but pasta quality is compromised due to incomplete drying and strand breakage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary separation of pasta strands onto support sticks before the drying process begins. This preliminary arrangement ensures that strands are properly spaced and positioned for optimal drying from the start, preventing later quality issues. By establishing correct strand separation in advance, the system can maintain quality even at higher production speeds without compromising drying effectiveness.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
A long pasta production plant comprising: a first long pasta forming area (2); a second long pasta spreading area (10) generated on support sticks (11) each having two free ends; a third area (14) for pre-drying and drying the long pasta comprising a handling group (15) of the sticks (11) operatively connected to a pair of support chains (16) for the two free ends of the sticks (11). The sticks (11) have a longitudinal extension greater than 2550 mm and the handling group (15) comprises a first thrust kinematics (18) of the chains (16) and a second traction kinematics (19) of the chains (16).